Feathering the Empty Nest #1: Adults Only

Written By: Dawn
-
Jan•
03•14

2014 is off and running and I am full of goals and ambition!

In addition to posting more often (don’t cringe) I’ll be featuring special categories this year. The first one debuts today- Feathering Your Empty Nest. 2014 is the year The Better Half and I officially become Empty Nesters. All year I’ll be chronicling the transition from daily family hood to parenting adult children. I expect it to be a emotional and sometimes bumpy ride, but one all parents must take.

Officially our parenting journey began when Big Boy was born nearly 21 years ago, but earlier this week we took a big step on the road to the Empty Nest with Little Bug’s 18th Birthday celebration

We now have four adults in the house. Although the dictionary says a child is a son or daughter of any age, I have a hard time thinking of my sons as children given their age and size. However, if I were to judge solely on behavior, I suspect they’ll be child-like forever.

An advantage to having more than one child is that the older one breaks you in a bit. When we dropped Big Boy off at his college dorm room that first year Little Bug wrapped his arm around me and said, “Don’t worry Mom you still have me.” I continued to sob for another fifteen minutes, but his kind words helped ease the pain of the goodbye. Within a week we’d all adjusted to having one less person in the house.

Come fall, I will not have another child to reassure me of anything when we drop Little Bug off at school. I may need to bring the dog because his unconditional love would come in handy and spreading some dog hair in the dorm room will make LB feel more at home, right?

Last night we sat down to a rare family dinner during the Winter Break that has three of us off school. Technically there were four adults at the table. Before too long the conversation digressed into sibling bickering that folded into the best mood enhancer ever-bodily noises.

These are the parenting moments that leave you speechless as you try and grasp how so much can be different and yet remain exactly the same.

I hope you enjoy following me through 2014. In addition to my parenting journey I’ll be updating readers on my writing through Page Girl:Musings on Writing posts. I’m set to finish the Stanford Creative Writing Certificate Program this spring and then begin the process of querying agents, something I haven’t done since 2009. My novel is much better now than it was then.

In addition to these new features, I’ll continue to post about my football life through Pigskin Princess posts and my geek adventures through It’s All Geek To Me.

Thanks to taking time out of your busy schedule to visit Method To the Madness and Happy New Year!

Dawn Maria

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a married woman in possession of a full-time job, two sons, shedding pets and dreams of becoming a writer, must be in want of a regular form of expression.”
-Jane Austen (paraphrased)

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